Orzhov Beatsticks - cards like Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or Sunscorch Regent

[pokken]

Hey folks,

I've been working on major tuneups to my Breena deck and I wanted to reach out here about a general purpose topic that came up for me.

A play pattern I've been seeing with Breena is that I mostly want 2 good attackers on the battlefield at a time, and a way to rapidly close a game is for those guys to be super tall - which Breena facilitates well. So cards like Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet who get gigantic on their own (sac'in zombies) and have relevant text or evasion are super nice.

I added a couple cards in this vein, Sunscorch Regent and Serra Ascendant. Selfless Squire is another super tall critter that already exists in the deck, along with Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet.

I am debating adding a but more lifegain support and trying for things like Ajani's Pridemate that naturally get super tall, which would enable Karlov of the Ghost Council as well.

But before I jump in on that train, I was wondering if anyone can think of more standalone creatures in BW that get super tall without significant amounts of support -- cards like Sunscorch Regent who just gets absurdly huge in a turn cycle or two, necessitating a sweeper or an answer. I've seen this card one-shot a player before more than once, despite it being fairly unassuming.

(Posting this here because a reservoir of beatsticks might be useful for many Orzhov decks )

Any thoughts?

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Divinity of Pride is my favorite of your options, it's so cool. Close second is Stillmoon Cavalier, who isn't a traditional beatstick but wears buffs like a boss and is also so cool.

[Mookie]

For my beatsticks, I usually look for three specific attributes: some form of evasion, the ability to generate immediate value, and some amount of stickiness / resistance to removal (such as hexproof or indestructible). All three is obviously best, but there aren't many creatures that have all of them - it's pretty much Eldrazi or bust. Still, two is usually sufficient, although I'm willing to settle for just one if it is on a cheap creature.

Anyway, I'll call out Grave Titan, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Sepulchral Primordial, Archon of Cruelty, and Yahenni, Undying Partisan as some black options. Serra's Emissary, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, and Sephara, Sky's Blade are some white options. Most of these don't scale into 1-shot territory though.

[pokken]

Yeah I've tried this deck with big value 6/6s and stuff and I did not like it. It always made me want to overcommit and cost too much mana. I'm looking for like 4 cmc or 5 cmc curve toppers who will get gigantic or 1/2 cmc broke stuff (like ascendant or pridemate) that curve into breena.

Something like brimaz or hero of bladehold that go tall.

Yahenni is my favorite of those but I think he'd need some support. But bringing his own protection is great.

Divinity is actually super solid and I may give that a try. I like lifelink a lot in this deck so far as it's very helpful for the common race scenarios. Being out of war storm surge range rapidly is also nice.

Sepharas discount might make her ideal tbh if I can get the right flier count. Cheap plus breena protection. But I'm not confident about getting that many fliers

Karlov is an almost perfect example but needs too much support.

The card in another combo that jumps to mind is Varolz. He'd be so perfect. Protection sac outlet and growing gigantic.

[Cyberium]

What about Archangel of Thune, Deathbringer Liege, and Krav, the Unredeemed/Regna, the Redeemer? They provide utilities that could prolong your advantage.

[Ardeyn]

Unfortunately, there's not that many self growing creatures in Orzhov colors. How about the following:

Hero of Bretagard
Nightshade Harvester
Aetherstorm Roc
Archangel of Thune
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
Necropolis Regent
The Haunt of Hightower
Patron of the Vein

I think, these are your best options after the ones you allready have.

Ardeyn

[pokken]

Wish I could like that list twice @Ardeyn thanks.

Krav seems like he might work but man some of those are enticing. I have a bit of a land sub theme so Ob might work out great. Not having a keyword is rough but he gets giant.

Weirdly I think the haunt is prob the best for my use case. Gets huge has flying and lifelink and allows me to dish out a little hatorade.

Very much appreciate the insights folks

[pokken]

Stillmoon Cavalier, who isn't a traditional beatstick but wears buffs like a boss and is also so cool.

So for some reason I had it in my head that Breena's ability targets. Breena's ability...does not target. I'll give Stillmoon Cavalier some serious thoughts. That's a whole lot of keywords for not a ton of mana.

Keyword soup might be a really fun subtheme for me to think about.

[Ruiner]

One not listed so far is Westgate Regent. It is a card that I think has potential in the big dumb beater role. I put it in a deck recently but have yet to drop it in play so I haven't tested it yet. Built in evasion and a nuisance players need to deal with when targeting it, while getting larger and larger every turn seems to have potential.

Divinity of Pride is really sweet, I've had some big success with that in my Liesa deck.

[Sinis]

I love Ashen Rider. Perhaps heavy on the MV and light on the height, but it's got utility. It doesn't grow (strictly speaking), but I find God-Eternal Oketra to be pretty great.
I also have a soft-spot for Drana, Liberator of Malakir, but I think she's better suited to wider boards.